Court Order Denies Samsung Preview of iPad 3 and iPhone 5

The lawsuits war between Apple and Samsung has been going on for a long time. Apple first filed suit against Samsung in April, claiming that the Samsung Galaxy line too closely imitated the look and feel of its iOS devices. Samsung then fired back at Apple, filing 10 different patent infringement claims against Apple over the iPhone and the iPad.

In May, Samsung’s lawyers demanded that they wanted to see Apple’s future products because devices like the Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1 will presumably be in the market at the same time as the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, and they want to evaluate any possible similarities so they can prepare for further potential legal action from Apple. The request came after the court ordered Samsung to show prototypes of its new, already-announced devices to Apple.

As expected, the U.S. Circuit judge yesterday denied Samsung’s request to preview iPad 3 and iPhone 5. In her 11 page order, Judge Lucy Koh tried to explain in detail the reasons for which Samsung’s request was rejected.

The Court concludes that Samsung has not shown good cause to justify expedited discovery of Apple’s future products, packaging, and packaging inserts. Samsung’s motion to compel is therefore DENIED. As noted above, the Court nonetheless believes that Samsung should be entitled to parity in discovery directed at Apple’s potential preliminary injunction motion. If Samsung had requested reasonable discovery along the lines discussed at the hearing on Apple’s motion for expedited discovery, the Court would have granted the request. However, as Samsung has not requested such discovery in this motion, the Court cannot order it. In any case, it appears that Apple may be willing to provide such discovery without the need for Court intervention

Judge also noted that, Samsung’s claim of prejudice was undermined to some extent by evidence that Samsung has already released images and samples of its forthcoming products to the media and members of the public.” iPad 3 and iPhone 5 on the other hand are only rumours based on media reports and given iPad 2 was launched earlier this year, there is very little chance of Apple releasing iPad 3 anytime soon.

Everything was not good for Apple though. A part of judge’s order hinted that Apple may not get an injunction against Samsung unless it provides the iPhone 5 or the iPad 3 to the court for evaluation. It means, Samsung can continue to sell its mobile devices in the U.S. and is not under any pressure to reach a settlement in this case.